Squad list - someone explain please!

[Jack]

The big story surrounding the CL squad announced yesterday was Ballack being left out, but have a look at the Official website for a sec:

link

Mon, 3rd Sep 2007

Chelsea Football Club on Friday submitted our squad list for the UEFA Champions League group phase.

We can confirm that Michael Ballack has not been included on the list for the group phase. Unfortunately Michael's current injury meant, at the time of the squad submission deadline, we could not guarantee his availability for the majority of the group phase games.

Naturally we hope Michael's recovery is as quick as possible, that he returns to full training ahead of schedule and that he will then be available for the latter stages of the competition, should we qualify.

Chelsea's lists are as follows:

A List

1 CECH, Petr

3 COLE, Ashley

4 MAKELELE, Claude

5 ESSIEN, Michael

6 CARVALHO, Ricardo

7 SHEVCHENKO, Andriy

8 LAMPARD, Frank

9 SIDWELL, Steve

10 COLE, Joe

11 DROGBA, Didier

12 MIKEL, John Obi

14 PIZARRO, Claudio

15 MALOUDA, Florent

18 BRIDGE, Wayne

20 FERREIRA, Paulo

21 KALOU, Salomon

22 BEN HAIM, Tal

23 CUDICINI, Carlo

24 WRIGHT-PHILLIPS, Shaun

26 TERRY, John

33 ALEX

35 BELLETTI, Juliano

40 HILARIO, Henrique

B List

41 HUTCHINSON, Sam

42 SAWYER, Lee

Under the regulations on player eligibility for the Champions League, no club may have more than 25 players on List A during the season. Six places on List A are reserved for 'locally trained players'.

A 'locally trained player' is either a 'club-trained player' or an 'association-trained player' and no club may have more than three 'association-trained players' listed among the six

A 'club-trained player' is a player who - irrespective of his nationality and age - has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months between the age of 15 and 21.

An 'association-trained player' is a player who - irrespective of his nationality and age - has been registered with a club or with other clubs affiliated to the same national association for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months between the age of 15 and 21.

Each club is entitled to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season.

A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1986 and has been eligible to play for the club for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday.

Scott Sinclair does not qualify as a club-trained player having not spent three seasons at Chelsea. He is not on List A. His loan to Plymouth last season makes him ineligible for List B.

Following the September 1 deadline for the submission of these lists, a club may register a maximum of three new eligible players for the remaining matches. Such registration must be completed by 1 February.

*****

Fair enough Ballack has been left out because he's nowhere near fit - he'd just be taking up a space that someone else can fill. The papers have made a big fuss about it but the guy has been injured since April and hasn't yet started running - he won't play for ages yet.

The bit that I don't get is the 'locally-trained' players on List A - at least 3 of which must be 'club-trained' (registered with current club for 3 years between the ages of 15-21) and 3 'association-trained' (registered with a club in this country for 3 years between 15-21).

Am I being daft or is John Terry the only one on List A who fits the 'club-trained' criterion?

Is it that 6 places are reserved for the locally trained players and we've left two vacant (the list is only 23 players long), basically because we can't fill them?

As far as I can understand it, the young guys are going to become more and more important to the CL squad. We currently have JT who qualifies as a club-trained player - so either we forego the two places or we draft in the likes of Sinclair, Hutchinson and Sawyer and any other young boys who have been at the club for 3 years. In one way it's a good thing for the young English boys, but realistically it just means that we have to buy our foreign players into the club before they reach 18.

Anyone have an further insight into this?

[loz]

Your explanation seems about right to me Jack - I certainly can't think of any other one.

This will smooth itself out within a year or two as our youth policy is finally up and runing in earnest.

[Valerie]

A 'club-trained player' is a player who - irrespective of his nationality and age - has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months between the age of 15 and 21.

Am I being daft or is John Terry the only one on List A who fits the 'club-trained' criterion?

If you read again, the description of a club trained player is one or the other, not both.

So therefore JT is not the only one to fit the profile of a club-trained player. I count Carlo, Lamps, Joey, Riccy, Maka, Bridge, and Cech as well: if I'm not mistaken, all players who have been with Chelsea for 3 seasons or longer.

Apart from that, all those rules do my head in

[loz]

Val

They can only qualify if the three years was between the ages of 15 and 21 (as much as you might like to believe Carlo is still only 22 it is a very forlorn hope!!! )

[Lofty]

A 'club-trained player' is a player who - irrespective of his nationality and age - has been registered with his current club for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons or of 36 months between the age of 15 and 21.

Am I being daft or is John Terry the only one on List A who fits the 'club-trained' criterion?

I don't think JT is the only one to fit the profile of a club-trained player. I count Carlo, Lamps, Joey, Riccy, Maka, Bridge, and Cech as well: if I'm not mistaken, all players who have been with Chelsea for 3 seasons or longer.

Read again ... Maka could always lie about his age!

[Valerie]

Val

They can only qualify if the three years was between the ages of 15 and 21 (as much as you might like to believe Carlo is still only 22 it is a very forlorn hope!!! )

You mean he isn't Damn, I thought we were of the same age

I still think you're not reading it carefully enough. It's one criterion OR the other, not both at the same time.

[Lofty]

You might be right there. If I missed the little or, well I've been working in the jungle garden again. And I'm getting old. An all that.

[loz]

hmm - I will grant you it is ambiguous. It could either mean what you are saying or it could mean that the player must, between 15 and 21 been at the club for 3 seasons or 36 consecutive months (which is actually different)

[Jack]

I think the club-trained description refers to a total of 36 months taking into account any loan periods. I think this is so clubs can't sign a player and then send him out on a 'permanent' loan - he must be active at the club for half of the 6 years (72 months) between 15 and 21. The months are mentioned to take any short loans into consideration. A kid could have 3 months out on loan but then he'd have to wait till he'd totted up a full 36 months at his parent club (rather than just complete his 3 years).

Thinking about it, Ballack will only get back in if someone else gets injured. The 23 places that have been taken up only leaves 2 for anyone else who qualifies, like JT. The kids on List B may well reach the criterion in the next few months, but Ballack can only get in if someone gets injured - the two free spaces can only be taken by players who fit the 36 months between 15 and 21 thing.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if we get to late January and everyone is fit or nearly fit. Will Ballack get in or will Jose let him rot?

[Tim W]

So the French primary school in North London have no problems then as they have been there since the age of 11.

[Jack]

So the French primary school in North London have no problems then as they have been there since the age of 11.

We may laugh at them but they have been preparing for this new rule for several years now. Fabregas is classed as home-grown as he's been at the club since the age of 16, and there are plenty of others. The idea is to bring players through and match them up with top class established internationals. We have the internationals (though it's debateable that they are top class!) but we have no youths (British or otherwise) to compliment them. In a few years van Aarnholt, Liam Bridcutt, Scott Sinclair, Sam Hutchinson, Lee Sawyer, Anthony Grant et al may make the break-through, but we also need to continue that flow of players from the age group 15-21, both from here and abroad. It's the future if you want to compete - get them in before a) they're 18 or B) someone else snaps them up. Diarra has gone and would have just ducked in under the requirements (I think); Mikel Obi is too old, believe it or not. He'll be 21 next april and will only have spent 21 months with us by then. So it's down to the likes of Sinclair, Hutchinson and Sawyer to fill those extra spaces in our squad; the current list is 2 short, as I said earlier. I doubt there is any other club in the competition which declared only 23 players?